Manhunt continues for suspect in shootings of two Wellston police officers, killings of aunt and uncleTulsa WorldThis undated photo provided by the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office shows Michael Vance. Authorities are searching for Vance, who is suspected in a double slaying and accused of shooting and wounding multiple police officers near Oklahoma City on Sunday WELLSTON The man who shot two Wellston police officers Sunday made a Facebook video afterward, saying, This is more intense than what I thought it was going to be, authorities said. Bleeding from the shoot-out, the man fled in an officer's pickup, ...and more »

The Decline in Chinese Cyberattacks: The Story Behind the NumbersMIT Technology ReviewLast summer, an audience of government officials, military personnel, and foreign ambassadors gathered in Aspen, Colorado, to hear John Carlin, then an assistant attorney general, speak about cyberattacks. The Aspen Security Forum, which is held every ...

What if your Obamacare insurer has left the business?CBS NewsOpen enrollment for the Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges officially starts Nov. 1, and exchange members looking at that date face a double whammy. First, premiums for the midlevel benchmark plan are expected to increase 25 percent on ...and more »

How White Nationalists Learned To Love Donald TrumpPoliticoThe embrace of Donald Trump by America's white nationalists has been one of the most surprising and unsettling threads in the 2016 campaign. The celebrity New York developer has been endorsed by the nation's most prominent neo-Nazis, as well as both ...and more »

An oil well set alight by the Islamic State in Qayyarah, south of Mosul, Iraq, on Sunday. President Obama is on track to leave his successor an improved military situation on the ground, but the region remains torn by many other conflicts.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's military struck dozens of Islamic State and Kurdish YPG militia targets in Syria over the last 24 hours, depriving both groups of the ability to move around, the army said on Monday, as its operation there entered a third month.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said an "humanitarian pause" in air strikes on Syria's Aleppo had ended on Saturday and Moscow was not currently considering a return to the ceasefire, Russian news agencies reported.

MANSFIELD, Conn. (AP) -- They have heard the stories of floating orbs and disembodied voices, and officials at the University of Connecticut say they really shouldn&apos;t have to tell people that the abandoned mental institution the school owns is not actually haunted....

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- America&apos;s top diplomat for Asia said Monday that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte&apos;s controversial remarks and a &quot;real climate of uncertainty&quot; about his government&apos;s intentions have sparked distress in the U.S. and other countries....

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — America’s top diplomat for Asia said Monday that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial remarks and a “real climate of uncertainty” about his government’s intentions have sparked distress in the U.S. and other countries.
Daniel Russel, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said he also relayed to Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. international concern over continuing killings under Duterte’s crackdown against illegal drugs.
Russel’s visit to the Philippines, part of a three-nation trip to Southeast Asia, comes amid increasing uncertainty about Washington’s treaty alliance with Manila. The brash Duterte, who took office on June 30, has displayed antagonism toward America, declaring his desire to scale back military engagements with the U.S. and telling President Barack Obama to “go to hell.”

Duterte’s administration, however, has not formalized his public declarations to remove U.S. counterterrorism forces from the volatile southern Philippines and stop large-scale joint exercises involving American forces, creating confusion among even his Cabinet officials.
In a major walk-around, Duterte sparked diplomatic alarm when he announced during a state visit to Beijing last week his “separation” with the United States. Upon returning home the day after his stunning remarks, Duterte said he did not mean he was severing diplomatic ties with Washington but only wanted to end a foreign policy that’s overly oriented toward the U.S.
“I’ve pointed out to Secretary Yasay that the succession of controversial statements, comments and a real climate of uncertainty about the Philippines’ intentions has created consternation in a number of countries, not only in mine,” Russel told reporters Monday in Manila after a meeting with Yasay that went overtime.
The unease, Russel said, was also palpable “not only among governments, but also … in other communities, in the expat Filipino community, in corporation board rooms as well.”
“This is not a positive trend,” he said, adding that the U.S. remains committed to continuing a solid alliance with and providing assistance to the Philippines, including in fighting the drug menace.
Coinciding with Russel’s visit, the U.S. military turned over a refurbished C-130T cargo plane Monday as part of Washington’s effort to help modernize the underfunded Philippine military, which has struggled to deal with Muslim and communist insurgencies and natural disasters.
Outgoing U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg said at the turnover ceremony that the U.S. was trying to clarify Duterte’s remarks in relation to existing policies, including their impact on planned joint military exercises. Despite the concerns, Goldberg said the U.S. rebalance to Asia would proceed.
“It’s a historical relationship, it has its ups and downs,” Goldberg told reporters. While he remains optimistic, Goldberg said “some of the language we’ve heard is inconsistent with that friendship.”
Asked if joint combat exercises with the Americans would continue despite Duterte’s declared opposition to them, Yasay could not give a categorical answer to reporters.
Duterte wanted the joint combat drills to enable the Philippines “to be self-reliant in our defensive requirements,” Yasay said. “If this will not be achieved, (Duterte) said then, there’s no purpose of proceeding with these.”
Patrolling the China-held Scarborough Shoal with the U.S. Navy, for example, can send a signal that it’s a deterrent against bad Chinese intentions. “It has precisely resulted in both parties digging in and made a peaceful resolution of the disputes even farthest from achieving,” Yasay said.
Russel said that while Washington welcomes the relaxation of tensions between Manila and Beijing under Duterte, the rapprochement should not come at the expense of the U.S. or other nations.
“It’s a mistake to think that improved relations between Manila and Beijing somehow come at the expense of the United States,” he said. “This should be addition and not subtraction.”

Two of Donald Trump’s closest former aides have ties to a firm that tried to help the Russian government spy on its own people, sources told The Post.
Former Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort and ex-“core’’ aide Rick Gates have financial links to EyeLock, which lobbied Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s government in a bid to expand the country’s domestic spying program, sources said.
The Russians wanted to use “iris-reading’’ technology in their subways to scan riders’ eyes and ferret out those on “watch lists,’’ sources said.
The company planned to help Russia hide the iris-scanning machines throughout Moscow’s stations, sources said. Just one scanner could have secretly read and collected biometric data from as many as 50 people per minute.
The company didn’t win the contract. But its ties to Trump and Putin through the two men raises troubling questions over potential conflicts of interest, critic say.
“This is quite an unusual business relationship for senior presidential campaign staff members to have with a foreign government,” a former White House official told The Post.
“It raises a lot of questions about national security and what should have been publicly disclosed to get a better handle on ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.”
Trump has tried to downplay any potential issues involving his own business empire and the Russian government by insisting, among other things, “I don’t know Putin.’’
But his two aides were unable to distance themselves. Manafort resigned from the campaign in August amid growing heat over his ties to Ukraine’s pro-Russian government. Gates hung on a bit longer — till last month — before he also stepped down.
Through Manafort’s consulting company, David Manafort & Freeman, the pair had helped elect Viktor Yanukovich, Ukraine’s pro-Putin president.
The US Justice Department is now investigating whether the consulting company illegally used the US financial system to aid Yanukovich and his regime, according to reports.
As for EyeLock LCC, Manafort was a major early investor, four sources close to the company said.
Gates was hired by EyeLock as an independent contractor to build business in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, sources said. Gates has also worked for Manafort’s political consulting company in Ukraine.
Manafort invested as much as $1 million and owned about 10 percent of EyeLock as early as 2006, multiple sources said. His stake was diluted to less than 1 percent after EyeLock was acquired last year by Voxx International, according to a shareholder close to Manafort.
EyeLock’s push to get into the Moscow metro system was no different than working with the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the successor of the Soviet Union’s KGB, analysts told The Post.
“Really, the FSB is everywhere,” Steven L. Hall, who ran intelligence operations for the Central Intelligence Agency in Eurasia and Latin America for 30 years before retiring in 2015, told The Post. “If the Russian metro officials suspected anything difficult or problematic they would call the FSB.
“It would not surprise me, as a former intelligence officer, that the Russians are looking to have that capability,” he said.
While other countries use similar “iris-reading’’ technology at customs checkpoints, Russia wanted to covertly install it throughout its subway system in order to track those walking through, including everyone from US diplomats to journalists and tourists, sources said.
“They had some people on a naughty list, a black list, and they wanted to track these people,” a former executive told The Post. “It was more surveillance, hit a black-list database, send up an alert.”
While neither Manafort nor Gates were directly involved in the day-to-day operations at EyeLock, they were both aware of its plans to enter the Russian market, sources said.
In an interview before he left the Trump campaign, Gates said he was only involved in helping EyeLock procure US government contracts and had no involvement with Russia. He didn’t return a follow-up voice mail asking about his involvement in the Middle East.
Manafort didn’t return calls and an e-mail seeking comment. EyeLock, through a rep, denied that Manafort ever had any direct involvement or operational role with the company’s business.
“There is an entity which holds a minority interest in EyeLock LLC,” the company said through a spokesman, John Dillard. “The Company understands that Mr. Manafort has (or had) a .03% indirect interest in EyeLock LLC through that entity. The notion that small, indirect interest would give Mr. Manafort a financial incentive to attempt to act on behalf of EyeLock is preposterous.”
Investing in and working for a company that does business with Putin’s Russia is legal, and it appears that EyeLock didn’t run afoul of any sanctions.
Trump’s campaign said it was unaware of Manafort and Gates’ ties to EyeLock.
“Mr. Trump and the campaign have absolutely no knowledge of this, and these individuals are no longer with the campaign,’’ Hope Hicks, a Trump campaign spokeswoman, told The Post.

Trump's alleged ties to New York and Philadelphia crime families go back decades and have been recounted in a book, newspapers and government records.
"The mob connections of Donald are extraordinarily extensive," New York investigative journalist Wayne Barrett told CNN in an interview.
Barrett, the author of the 1992 unauthorized biography "Trump: The Deals and the Downfall," wrote that Trump's life "intertwines with the underworld."
The allegations are getting new scrutiny as Trump runs for president, largely on his record as a successful, and extraordinarily wealthy, businessman. As Trump cements his leads atop the polls, questions about how he made his billions, and who helped him make them, are starting to take center stage.

A Trump spokesperson did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.
To be sure, organized crime had ties to the New York and New Jersey construction industry in the 1980's and early 1990's, making contact between developers and mafia-controlled companies almost unavoidable at times.
"There was a certain amount of mob association during which the father and he were building, which was very difficult to avoid in the New York construction world," Barrett said, adding, "He went out of his way not to avoid them, but to increase them."

, David Marcus writes that Trump bought the property that his Atlantic City casino Trump Plaza would one day occupy -- for twice market price -- from Salvatore Testa, a Philly mobster and son of one-time Philly mob boss Philip "Chicken Man" Testa. (Springsteen fans might recognize the elder Testa from the opening lines of the song, Atlantic City.)

In his book, Barrett writes that Testa and a partner, who together headed a Philly mafia hit-squad called the Young Executioners, bought the property for "a scant $195,000" in 1977. In 1982, Trump paid $1.1 million for it.
"The $220 per square foot that Trump paid for the Testa property was the second most expensive purchase he made on the block, even though it was one of the first parcels he bought," Barrett wrote.
The casino was built with the help of two construction companies controlled by Philly mobsters Nicademo "Little Nicky" Scarfo and his nephew Phillip "Crazy Phil" Leonetti, according to, as Marcus notes, a New Jersey state commission's 1986 report on organized crime.
Trump also had a decade-long relationship with Scarfo's investment banker, according to Barrett's book.
In Manhattan, Trump used the mob-controlled concrete company S&A to build Trump Plaza condos. Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, head of the Genovese crime family, and Paul Castellano, the don of New York's Gambino family, controlled S&A, according to federal court records Barrett cited in his book.
Barrett noted that he built the Trump Tower out of concrete, instead of steel, at a time when the mafia controlled much the concrete industry.
"While dealing with the concrete cartel was inevitable for any developer in the period when Trump Tower was built, Donald took the relationship several steps further than he had to," Barrett wrote.

from the time the book was published, reporter David Cay Johnston summed up Barrrett's unauthorized biography, writing that it "asserts that throughout his adult life, Donald Trump has done business with major organized-crime figures and performed favors for their associates."

Trump was a target of a 1979 bribery investigation and was questioned in a 1981 racketeering probe, but neither federal investigation led to criminal charges, Johnston wrote.

More recently, Johnston, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, wrote an article called

A cyberattack on Oct. 21 used millions of internet-connected devices to flood the infrastructure of one of the biggest internet routing companies in the US with malicious traffic until it crashed. The attack started on the East Coast but soon spread westward in three waves during the day.
Cyber experts suspect that this unprecedented assault, on a massive scale that points to a state hacker - whether Russia, China or North Korea – may have been staged as a rehearsal for the main show, the disruption of America’s Nov. 8 elections.
There is increasing concern that voters in the 31 states, where civilians and American troops overseas may cast their ballots by Internet, will find their websites disabled by hackers. Around one million US voters would be affected, a critical figure in a tight presidential race between the Democratic and Republican contenders that could create mayhem for American democracy.It seems that unlike previous distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, the hackers succeeded in wielding a novel weapon, which is the “next big thing” in malware, known in tech parlance as the “Internet of Things” (IOT). Not only are computers connected to websites directly attacked, but millions of internet-connected devices smart home gadgets, like cameras, baby monitors, remote garage openers, smart refrigerators, DVDs are infected without their owners’ knowledge with software that exposes them to be used by hackers to swamp the victims with overwhelming traffic.
Since these internet-connected devices are easy to use and relatively cheap, little attention was given to information security when they are developed. For some time, cyber experts have been warning of the potential for major cyber damage from IOT.
The Internet networks in the eastern US were almost completely shut down on Friday morning (local time) when one of the biggest domain name system providers, the Dyn DNS Company, was struck down.
Dyn reported that starting at 7:10am, its DNS servers came under a DDoS attack, which floods servers with huge amounts of malicious traffic. Users reported problems that sporadically shut down several websites, including Twitter, Netflix, Spotify, Airbnb, Reddit, Etsy, SoundCloud and The New York Times.
The first wave lasted about 90 minutes.
The second wave, which started two hours later, knocked out many West Coast internet sites offline.
debkafile’s cyber defense and intelligence sources report that investigators are looking into two possible causes of the Oct. 21 onslaught.
One was named by US Vice President Joe Biden, who promised during an Oct. 14 interview with NBC, after Democratic Party emails were hacked, that Washington’s response to Russian cyberattacks “will be at a time of our choosing, and under the circumstances that will have the greatest impact.”
Rather than waiting for the blow to fall, it is possible that Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to send a clear warning to Washington not to start a cyber war with Moscow.
Another possible culprit may be a company seeking revenge for its public denunciation by a Dyn Company leader for developing advanced means and methods for carrying out DDoS attacks.

By Tony May
The problem that many voters have with Donald Trump is not that he doesn't always tell the truth.
It's that he is so resistant to admitting fault or error that he contradicts himself in ways that prevent you from knowing fact from fiction.
It's infuriating – and thus far in his life, it's been an effective tool for befuddling his enemies.
Take something simple like does Trump know Vladimir Putin or does he not? Several times in the primary election season, he regaled debate audiences with details of his purported relationship with the Russian dictator.
He said he was in Russia for a Miss Universe pageant and Putin "was very nice" and sent him (Trump) a gift.
If you listened closely, he never actually said he and Putin were in the same room together – just that Putin made a fuss over him. On another occasion, he said he and Putin were together alone in a "green room" waiting to appear on the same public affairs show.
Did they bond? In an initial telling of the story, they had a great time in each other's company. In a later recounting, it's not at all clear that being in the same room meant they talked to each other.
Since the General Election campaign began, he has denied any relationship with Putin.
By the third and final debate, the denials of a relationship with Putin became adamant as he faced continuing pressure to denounce Putin and voice agreement with the conclusion by the U.S. government intelligence community that Russia (read that as Putin) was behind the hacking of Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton e-mails.
At least one mainstream news organization (Newsweek) has reported that the Trump campaign had distributed a doctored version of Clinton campaign emails that were originally posted by a Kremlin news website and later erased from the Internet when it was pointed out by the Newsweek reporter that material in the internet post attributed to a Clinton campaign advisor was actually a direct quote from a story he wrote this summer.
Were Russian sources feeding stuff to the Trump campaign? Would Trump agree that it looked like the Russians were meddling in domestic affairs in the United States?
In the second debate, Trump went so far in his efforts to debunk a Russian connection that he speculated that the hack was conducted by some 400-pound American lounging in his bed.
So whether Trump does or does not have a relationship with Putin is of material concern.
Especially because Trump at one point this summer off-handedly encouraged the Russians to hack Clinton's computers and then, by gum, they did.
Coupled with another Trump trait now generally recognized by the news media is his habit of projecting bad behavior attributed to him to others. He doesn't have a problem with facts, it's "lying Hillary."
He doesn't skirt the law, it's "crooked Hillary." He doesn't abuse women; you're mistaking him for Bill Clinton. He doesn't incite violence on the part of his supporters, that's another plot by Hillary's team.
Following this pattern, what are we to make of Trump's new mantra, the "election is rigged."
Who is rigging?
The Obama government?
An unholy cabal between Democratic and Republican leaders? The mainstream media?
The Clintons?
International bankers?
If you apply the Trump approach to shifting blame away from himself, he would rig the election if he could.
Where would he turn to for help? He's already noted that the Russians have the best hackers.
Some would say the whole train of thought is absurd – but this has been an absurd election cycle filled with outrages and excesses. It's the responsibility of a candidate for President to be clear and direct. Fuzzy rhetoric is the enemy of an honest election.
As the election season marches to its grim conclusion, it seems to include echoes of old movie plots like the original "Manchurian Candidate," the 1952 black and white version starring Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey, not the recent remake with Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep.
In the movie based on a Richard Condon spy thriller, Laurence Harvey is a prisoner of war held behind the Iron Curtain and brainwashed.
He comes back from the Korean War a Medal of Honor winner and is eventually running for Vice President – but has recurring concerns about flashbacks and memories.
I don't want to spoil the ending for those who might want to watch the movie some night on cable, but it doesn't turn out well for Harvey's character who was programmed by his captors to respond to a singular stimulus and commit a dastardly act.
Now what political figure do we know of today who admits to spending time in Russia but who can't seem to get his facts straight about what actually happened there?
Nah, no way Donald Trump is a Manchurian Candidate.
After all, he was never in the armed services and there no indication he even knows how to fire an AR-15.
Maybe he's something less exciting ... say, a Siberian Candidate.

THE ISSUE: Russia cannot be ignored. Since the end of the Cold War, Russia has never posed such a vexing problem to U.S. policymakers as it does now. From Eastern Europe to the Middle East and increasingly Asia and the Americas, Russia is making its voice heard and its presence felt.
After a brief period of looking inward during much of President Barack Obama's first term, Russia has returned to the international stage with zeal under Vladimir Putin. Russia is militarily involved in Syria, supports separatists in eastern Ukraine and areas of Georgia and has even been accused of trying to meddle in the U.S. presidential race. At the same time, the Obama administration has been forced to accept that working with Russia is probably the only way to achieve results on many complicated international issues. Thus, Russia was central in the Iran nuclear negotiations and is a player as well as negotiator in the Syria truce effort.
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WHERE THEY STAND
Republican Donald Trump advocates improved relations with Russia — "Wouldn't it be nice if we actually got along with Russia?" has been a standard line in his campaign speeches — and has been strikingly complimentary of Putin's strong leadership style, contrasting it favorably with that of Obama. Some of Trump's current and former top advisers have been criticized for being too close to Putin, and Democrats have accused the businessman of pandering for Russian praise. Trump, however, is not the first politician to champion better U.S. ties with Russia.
In fact, one of Hillary Clinton's first initiatives as secretary of state in 2009 was to "reset" relations with Moscow, an effort that produced decidedly mixed results.
The "reset" policy had some successes while Putin was taking a break from the Russian presidency. On Putin's return, though, the reset began to unwind and Russia started to take positions directly opposed to the U.S., notably in support of President Bashar Assad in Syria and then in Ukraine. Clinton has had direct negotiating experience with Putin and his aides and that has left her wary of cooperating with Moscow. Her campaign says she will "stand up to Vladimir Putin," "deter Russian aggression in Europe" and "increase the costs to Putin for his actions."
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WHY IT MATTERS
Relations between the former Cold War foes — the owners of the most nuclear weapons on Earth — are arguably some of the most important to leaders in both the White House and Kremlin. Animosity or cordial friendship can bring profound changes in international affairs and the next president will have to engage or confront Russia on a variety of matters, not least of which are allegations that Russia was behind the hacks of Democratic emails.
The conflicts in Syria and Eastern Ukraine will not end without Russian buy-in, and Russia will have to be involved in any new effort to bring North Korea back to denuclearization talks. In the meantime, Russia is a driving force behind the co-called BRICS group of nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — that sees itself as a balance to the U.S. superpower and may also present problems for the U.S.
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This story is part of AP's "Why It Matters" series, examining three dozen issues at stake in the presidential election. You can find the series at <a href="http://apne.ws/2bBG85a" rel="nofollow">http://apne.ws/2bBG85a</a>
EDITOR'S NOTE - One in an AP series examining issues at stake in the presidential election and how they affect people.

Russia is ready to turn a new page with the next US president, one of Vladimir Putin’s longest-serving aides has said, signalling some hope that Washington and Moscow can resume a more pragmatic relationship despite the recent spike in tensions between the two powers.
“We are always ready for Realpolitik,” Sergei Ivanov, a member of Mr Putin’s security council, told the FT. In his first interview to international media since stepping down as presidential chief of staff in August, Mr Ivanov said the Russian leadership had been “insulted” by anti-Russian rhetoric during the US election, but counted on American pragmatism to prevail.

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“We are prepared for that. We just have to wait until the end of the election campaign. We have to wait a couple more weeks, we just have to be patient.”
Officials in Washington and in Moscow may greet even the limited hopes voiced by Mr Ivanov with scepticism as the crises in Ukraine and Syria have proved intractable. Fears of meddling from Russia in the US presidential election, and a direct stand-off between US and Russian forces in Syria have shattered the little remaining trust between the two governments.
Mr Ivanov’s switch from chief of staff to a presidential representative for ecology and transport was seen as the biggest demotion in a series of Kremlin reshuffles and a milestone in replacing old guard members of Mr Putin’s inner circle. However, it is believed that the former defence minister and deputy prime minister continues to wield influence.
“Probably the president thinks that my past experience is useful in this work,” he said speaking in the Kremlin and referring to his role on the Security Council. Mr Ivanov has just swapped offices with his successor and former deputy Anton Vaino and now works just a few steps away from Mr Putin’s other deputy chiefs of staff.
Mr Ivanov dismissed the US government’s accusations that the Russian government was behind the Democratic National Committee emails leak, and insisted that unless Washington presented concrete proof, such accusations would be seen as empty statements and “propaganda”.
Mr Ivanov said the notion that the Kremlin would prefer to see Donald Trump in the White House was “absolutely not true”.
Although Moscow has in recent weeks ratcheted up war rhetoric and issued ever more direct warnings about nuclear war, Mr Ivanov said he hoped this was noise rather than a real threat. Although a former veteran of the KGB like the Russian president and many of his senior aides, Mr Ivanov is seen as less hawkish than some other Russian security officials.
“Especially when we talk about nuclear weapons and speak about the hypothetical possibility of world war three, I believe that everyone is smart enough not to take things to a hot war,” he said. “But if we talk about cold war, information war and propaganda war, that is a fact of life. We see that every day.”

»Donald Trump and the mob23/10/16 21:12 from 1. My News Blogs from mikenova (2 sites)Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinks mikenova shared this story . Trump's alleged ties to New York and Philadelphia crime families go back decades and have been recounted in a book, newspapers and government records. "The mob connections of Dona...